Showing posts in the “arts” category
Samiha Khanna ·
23 Feb 2010, 4:13 PM ·
2 Comments
From Correspondent Rebekah Cowell, cross-posted from the Indy’s Scan blog:
In a packed Durham City Hall Committee Room early this morning, the Durham County Board of Adjustment voted unanimously in favor of issuing a special-use permit to The Broad Street Cafe.
For the past four years, Broad Street has operated as a nightclub in a district that is zoned so that such a special-use permit is necessary to host music after 10 p.m. Less than one year after the first noise complaint was filed by Clarendon Street neighbor Waldo Fenner, who was not present at this morning’s hearing, Broad Street officially received the green light on amping up their regional music bookings in a space that musicians and business owners says is vital to Durham’s art scene.
“Broad Street Cafe is important for more than just music,” says Melissa Thomas, founder of the Durham-based indie label 307 Knox Records. “It provides a great venue space for music, festivals and family events, as well as a place to eat for locals and visitors. This hearing just showed us today how much we all have built in Durham over the past five-plus years.”
Paul Brock, one of four Broad Street owners, says he’s relieved to finally get the permit. “I was very impressed with the board. They were gracious to us, and they asked very smart questions and got a feel for what we are doing,” explains Brock.
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Durham, Durham County, arts, business, music, news, politics 307 Knox Records, Broad Street Cafe, Durham, Durham planning department, music, noise ordinance
Joe Schwartz ·
14 Dec 2009, 4:49 PM ·
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An arts gallery will fill the vacant Kerr Drug space on the 100 block of Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, officials announced today.
The space will house a nonprofit group of 25 member artists dubbed Frank, with a lease agreement in place with building owner Michael Brader-Araje.
The artists hope to occupy the 3,400 square foot 109 E. Franklin Street building by early next year. The town along with the Downtown Partnership gave the green light on a $40,000 loan via its Small Art Business Loan Program to fund the project.
Barbara Rich will serve as the director of the gallery, which also plans to feature work from 50 regional and national artists.
The move had long been rumored, and is the latest effort to upgrade foott raffic and revitalize Franklin Street.
Chapel Hill, Orange County, arts, business Barbara Rich, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, Frank, Franklin Street, Michael Brader-Araje
Joe Schwartz ·
24 Oct 2009, 7:21 PM ·
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The historic Varsity Theatre will return to Franklin Street in November under new ownership and will feature $3 movies, a renovated lobby and a children’s party room. The business closed in June.
More information can be found at www.varsityonfranklin.com where the new owners promise a slate of recently released and classic movies, private screenings and lectures, corporate meeting and children’s birthday space.
Chapel Hill, Orange County, arts, business Franklin Street, Varsity Theatre
Samiha Khanna ·
5 Oct 2009, 9:29 PM ·
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As reported last week on Triangulator, Durham property owner Mozella McLaughlin has excised The Know Book Store from plans for the jazz center she hopes to build at 2520 Fayetteville St. McLaughlin also has downsized the renovations she planned for the building, thus postponing any vote the City Council would have made Monday night to give her a neighborhood revitalization grant.
Among the changes, McLaughlin will nix plans for a rooftop garden, her son William McLaughlin told Triangulator last week. The revision could trim $200,000 from the initial proposal of $575,000 in renovations. The smaller total investment by McLaughlin could change the city’s participation through a revitalization grant. The changes will become clear once the Office of Economic and Workforce Development reviews the modified plan and presents recommendations to Council, sometime in the near future.
Meanwhile, as McLaughlin also told Triangulator last week, Bruce Bridges, owner of The Know, has been notified that he must move out of the building by Dec. 31.
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Durham, arts, business, news business, development, Durham City Council, incentives, Know
Samiha Khanna ·
1 Oct 2009, 4:18 PM ·
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The Know Book Store, which has called 2520 Fayetteville St. home for the past 18 years, will likely be moving out at the end of the year.
William McLaughlin, acting manager for the property owned by his mother Mozella McLaughlin, delivered a letter to tenant Bruce Bridges today, he said.
The letter asks that Bridges and his book store and restaurant be ready to move as soon as Dec. 31, so the McLaughlins could move forward with plans to turn the building into the Mok’e Jazz Cultural Center. Initially, the family planned to include The Know in the new center, but Bridges and the McLaughlins have been unable to reach a compromise.
We got the notion something was stirring today after reading this post by Jim Wise at the Bull’s Eye blog.
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Durham, arts, business, news business, development, Durham City Council, incentives, Know
David Fellerath ·
25 Jun 2009, 1:20 PM ·
17 Comments
Buster Keaton in Sherlock, Jr., released in 1924—several years before movies began playing at the present site of the Varsity Theater.
Just an hour ago, Bruce and Mary Jo Stone, the owners of the Varsity Theater on Franklin Street, released a written statement confirming the closing of the theater. Although the document doesn’t specify the effective date, presumably the theater will close after tonight’s final showings of The Hangover and The Brothers Bloom.
In the statement, signed by Bruce Stone, several factors are cited. First,
[T]he numbers currently don’t support the continuation of both theaters [the Varsity and the Chelsea, also owned by the Stones] as viable enterprises. The Varsity especially has been struggling for over two years, with no prospect of an upturn any time soon. Although the film exhibition business is a highly variable, feast or famine sort of business, the assumption has always been the feasts and famines eventually even one another out. However, there has been much more famine in recent years, with the summers being especially difficult.
The statement goes on to discuss changes in the business model that make it hard for specialty theaters to survive against multiplexes. Citing a May article in Variety , Stone writes,
[Specialty distributors] still in business prefer to withhold their prestige product until the fall winter awards season. When an indy film suddenly gains traction and becomes successful with a wider audience (or “crosses over”), the distributors quickly book these films into multiplexes everywhere, thereby undercutting the business being done at the specialty theaters.
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Chapel Hill, arts, business, film Bruce Stone, Chelsea Theater, Varsity Theater
David Fellerath ·
23 Jun 2009, 7:26 PM ·
4 Comments
The Varsity Theater, which has been in operation under different names on Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street for more than 80 years, will go dark this Friday.
Owner Bruce Stone wouldn’t directly confirm the theater’s closing, but when asked if the fact that the Indy had not been provided with movie listings for the Varsity meant there would be no movies there, he replied, “That would be a correct inference.”
Stone said he would make a formal announcement about the Varsity’s operations on Thursday or Friday. Stone’s other theater, the Chelsea, which is located in the Timberlyne shopping center, will remain open.
The Varsity’s closing has been long-rumored, and earlier this month I wrote a story about the financial realities of the business of running a specialty movie house.
For the record, the Varsity is currently showing The Brothers Bloom and The Hangover. The final screening for the former film is 9:20 p.m., while the final screening for the latter is 9:30.
Chapel Hill, arts, business, film Bruce Stone, Varsity Theater
David Fellerath ·
19 Mar 2009, 5:19 PM ·
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Main Street, the movie, may be shooting on your street soon.
We’ve got the story over on Artery, our seasonal arts blog—which will be cranking up in earnest for Full Frame.
Durham, arts, film Main Street
David Fellerath ·
18 Mar 2009, 3:25 PM ·
2 Comments
Theatre in the Park announced today that Justin Long, an actor seen in such titles as He’s Just Not That Into You, Galaxy Quest, Live Free or Die Hard and the Peyton Reed-directed The Break-Up, will play her BF from the Montague side of the tracks in the Theatre’s May production of Romeo and Juliet.
The production will run for five performances from May 15-17, at the TIP space in Pullen Park. Tickets are on sale for $50.
Wood, whose star will continue to rise when her next film, Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, opens the Tribeca Film Festival in April, is a Raleigh native and daughter of Ira David Wood III, artistic director of TIP. She received universal raves for her role in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, and she’s also reputed to be playing Mary Jane in a Broadway adaptation of Spider-Man, which will be directed by Julie Taymor, who brought The Lion King to the stage and also directed Wood in Across the Universe. Music will be by Bono and The Edge.
In this TV Guide red carpet interview on Oscar Night, Wood discusses the Spidey project and also gives a shout-out to the folks back home at Theatre in the Park.
Raleigh, arts, film, news Bono, Evan Rachel Wood, Julie Taymor, Justin Long, The Edge, Woody Allen
David Fellerath ·
13 Mar 2009, 6:44 PM ·
2 Comments
Thavisouk Phrasavath, co-director and subject of the Oscar-nominated The Betrayal-Nerakhoon, at the 2008 festival. (photo by D.L. Anderson)
If there was any doubt about the depth and breadth of the economic crisis in general and the daily newspaper crisis in particular, this afternoon’s announcement from the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival abolishes it.
The New York Times, which has provided sponsorship support for the 12-year-old festival since 2001, has withdrawn its commitment, the festival announced today, less than three weeks away from the start of this year’s event, which is scheduled for April 2-5 in Durham.
The Times was one of two “presenting sponsors” for the festival. Duke University is the other. The threshold for being a presenting sponsor is $100,000, says Peg Palmer, the festival’s executive director, in a phone interview earlier this evening.
“We’re disappointed. We’ve had a good long relationship with the Times,” Palmer says. “All the newspapers are reassessing [their priorities]. They’re slashing budgets and revisiting priorities. We’re one of the many that fell by the wayside.” Continue reading »
Durham, arts, business, economy, film, media, national, news Duke University, Full Frame, New York Times, Peg Palmer
